The OG Cheese
Name a cheese made from sheep’s milk?
You might know more than you think.
How about Pecorino, which means little sheep in Italian? Try Feta, Ricotta, Roquefort, Manchego, Bulgarian Kaschkavalo and of course Halloumi and there are so many more?
Cheese historians tell us that the very first cheeses were made from sheep and goats’ milk around eight thousand years ago – cows wouldn’t come onto the cheese scene until a couple of thousand years later.
This month Isabelle Fouard, Fair Food’s resident turophile takes us back to the origins of cheese featuring sheep milk cheesemaker Grandvewe as our Cheesemaker of the Month
When Grandvewe owner Diane Rae bought 40 acres overlooking Birchs Bay in southern Tasmania twenty years ago she got stunning views, incredible wildlife and terrible soils.
Diane, who had quit her finance job needed to make a living.
“We’d be bonkers to farm cows on this land, but it turned out to be a perfect fit for dairy sheep.” Diane remembers.
But not regular dairy sheep like your East Friesian however, which require a lush diet clover and rye grass to thrive, Diana found an unwanted herd of Awassi, a tough goat-like sheep, from the Arabian desert.
Awassi are amazing foragers – they love to eat thistles and spiky weeds which coincidentally Diane’s paddocks were full of. It was a marriage made in heaven.
Sheep milk is very high in fat which makes it perfect for cheesemaking.
Diane’s daughter, Nicole (that’s her in the pic above) took the lead in the cheese-room and found she had a skill for cheesemaking which has been since recognised with many awards – including Australia’s best blue sheep’s cheese.
Her cheeses include;
Gin Herbalist: Modelled on the famous Corsican Fleur De Marquis cheese and flavoured using native Australian botanicals from Hartshorn Distillery’s gin, it has a sweet and floral character.
Old Man: A semi-hard cheese matured for two months before hand-washing the rind with Hartshorn’s Oaked Vodka. Cardoon thistle is the rennet of choice for this particular treat.
Primavera: A traditional Manchego-style cheese with a smooth buttery flavour and a creamy finish.
Sapphire Blue: A robust blue cheese made in small batches which vary in strength depending on the season. It has a Roquefort acidity with a spicy, sea-salty bite and smoky finish. Texturally, it varies from crumbly through to smooth and creamy.
The Drunken Admiral: This is a semi-hard, sweet, slightly nutty cheese, once matured is soaked in a local red wine for a lugubrious regional celebration.
Amazing cheeses apart, there were a few of other reasons Isabelle Fouard chose Grandvewe as her featured cheesemaker.
Grandvewe keep lambs with their mothers and keep tails on sheep – both not usual practice. And when older sheep retire from milking they live out the rest of their lives on the farm.
Reducing plastic waste was another drawcard – Grandvewe pack their cheeses in compostable packaging and rather than using chemical ice bricks Diane wraps packaged in frozen sheep wool (a great insulator) to keep everything cold.
Finally, instead of throwing out the unwanted sheep whey from their cheesemaking process, Diane sends it to son Ryan’s Hartshorn Distillery, where he makes it into Sheep’s Whey Gin, which won a gold medal at the 2018 World Gin Awards.
In a further twist, Nicole used her brother’s gin to make her Gin Herbalist Fleur De Marquis style cheese, which took out first prize at the World Dairy Innovation Awards.
You can find Grandvewe’s cheeses this month in our Cheese Lovers section.
Have a great week
Chris
